Lunar Eclipse 2007 March 3
Background:
It was a rare occassion, clear skies across the British Isles coinciding with an astronomical event.
But, on the 3rd March 2007, that is what happened as the first total lunar eclipse since October 2004 took place.
Such an eclipse occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth line up in space with the Earth in the middle. Then, the planet's
shadow is cast onto the surface of the Moon. However, the Moon does not disappear completely. As the photograph shows,
it glows with a dull orange/red colour. This is caused by light from the Sun shining through the Earth's atmosphere and
being bent around onto the Moon. The brightness of the light on the Moon is an indication of the amount of
dust present in the Earth's atmosphere at that time. Often, when lunar eclipses occur after a large volcanic eruption,
the eclipse is darker than usual.
This image of the eclipse was taken at around 23:30UT using a Starlight Xpress HX516 camera and 135mm lens. This is a monochrome CCD camera so to produce
a colour image, several images were taken through red, green, blue and an infra-red blocking filter.
The images were then digitally combined to create the final result.
Kevin Deakes - The Andromeda Observatory 2007.